U.S. Army In The Market For A New Sniper Rifle

According to Military Times, “The US Army’s PM Soldier Weapons has put out a sources sought request over on FedBiz [Federal Business Opportunities, a government agency] looking for sources to manufacture a complete weapon system or reconfigure some or all of the existing 7.62 x 51mm M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System (SASS) currently available in the Army’s inventory.”

The Army has put out specifications for a shorter, lighter rifle than the current SASS. According to the bid document, the Army was “looking to build or convert 125 rifles per month with a capability to ramp up to 325 rifles per month.”

“Reading between the lines, 325 rifles a month is more than they’d need to outfit scout/sniper teams. At that rate, figuring a multi-year contract, that’s enough to outfit the DMRs [Designated Marksman Rifle units] Army wide. The logical conclusion is that the Army is looking to replace the venerable M14’s latest configuration [called the Enhanced Battle Rifle or EBR] with something more familiar to the current grunt that’s smaller, lighter and more easily maintained than the EBR.”

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There are only 185 or so companies that produce AR’s in 5.56 or 7.62, of those, about 92 o them make precision rifles, of these….about 48 of them have ALREADY been submitted for some program or another and of those, at least 26 of them missed being chosen for some small reason.

But yet, we need to find a NEW rifle again, and spend how many millions before the order gets cancelled or something else happens!!

Now, honestly, my figures above are made up, but they are probably not far off. How many billions were just wasted on a camoflaged uniform before that program was cancelled? And how many studies have been conducted over the past decade on replacing the M4? It is just amazing that our government WASTES so much damn money…allows companies to send our jobs overseas and then get compensate for it….and then just keeps wasting our damn tax money.

Now…we have the BEST military overall in the world, and some may say, we only have that by spending all this money..but that is a bunch of crap for many programs which are so redundant and just plain unneeded and wasteful.

I bet the readers on here could make 50 suggestions and at least half of them would satisfy the need for this contract..just my humble opinion..late at night…with insomnia..having lost F/T my job..but still have P/T

What it looks like to me, is that Uncle Sam wants the manufacturers to tell them what they need, for free, and then they might allow bids to open on the gun.

They need to scrap any ideas on a shorter barrel, and if it were me, I would want a newly designed firearm for this, where one could get the longest barrel possible, and to fit it all within their 36″ length requirement. Here, they will accept a folding stock.

The problem is, they require it to be a semi-auto rifle, which, in my opinion, will never be as accurate as a bolt action rifle, for this purpose, even though they’re using match ammo, and using a match-grade barrel.

There are some semi-auto designs where the frame is within the buttstock, and the clip is behind the grip, and this may be what they should look at in order to keep a long barrel. It would also cut down on the weight, in my opinion. Plus, a rotary bolt, with a very good fit-up, may produce good results, but this would be a new design.